Thank you, Chair.
Thank you, Minister, Deputy Minister, and staff for being here this morning.
I met with three of our trade commissioners in Tokyo the same week you were there, and I got to enjoy the snow. I will say this: those three commissioners were impressive. They knew their stuff. We had great discussions on the potential for Canada trading through the Asian trading blocs in Japan, and I think they're excited to see this signed, because they see lots of opportunity. They commented on how well the pork producers have done in marketing their pork in Japan and around the Asia-Pacific through Japan. I look forward to seeing beef and other products moving through TPP.
This is where I come to my question. It's so crucial that we get this agreement through the House as quickly as possible. Do you have any idea when it will actually come into the House for us to get it through second reading and get it into this committee?
I'd like to think the committee has done so much study on this topic—both in the previous government and this government, plus the Senate has had many discussions on it—that outside of maybe looking at the side agreements that you've added, since the existing agreement is much the same, we can maybe just add one or two meetings for that and put it through the committee and get it out so that it can be implemented and we can be one of the first six countries to ratify it and move forward.
Can you give us an idea on the timing, because it's very important?